Code Like It's 198x

Creatures Inc.

The middle name in Pokémon's copyright line

Companies & StudiosSource-checked

Creatures Inc. was founded in Tokyo in November 1995 by Tsunekazu Ishihara, who had worked at Shigesato Itoi's Ape. It shares the Pokémon copyright with Nintendo and Game Freak, co-founded what became The Pokémon Company in 1998, develops the Pokémon Trading Card Game and makes the 3D models of the Pokémon. Its games include Detective Pikachu Returns (2023).

Every Pokémon advertisement in Nintendo Power in 1998 ended with the same small print: “© 1995, 1996, 1998 Nintendo/Creatures, Inc./GAME FREAK, Inc.” Nintendo published the games and Game Freak made them. Creatures, the name in the middle, is less visible and just as permanent. It shares the copyright, co-founded the company that runs the Pokémon business, designs the Pokémon Trading Card Game and builds the 3D models of the Pokémon in the games.

From Ape to Creatures

Creatures grew out of the team behind Mother. When Shigesato Itoi got Nintendo’s blessing to make an RPG set in ordinary places, he “teamed up with a company called Ape in Tokyo”, as Nintendo Power explained in 1995. “Ape is best known for its books on video games.” Ape made the first Mother for the Famicom and worked on its Super Famicom sequel, released in America as EarthBound.

Tsunekazu Ishihara, who had worked at Ape, founded Creatures in November 1995 and ran it as chief executive for the next 27 years. Later accounts describe the new company as Ape’s successor.

Pokémon’s third owner

Game Freak’s Pocket Monsters Red and Green came out in Japan in February 1996, and Creatures’ name went into the copyright line alongside Nintendo’s and Game Freak’s. In April 1998 the three companies set up Pokémon Center Co., Ltd., which opened the first Pokémon Center shop in Tokyo that month and was renamed The Pokémon Company in October 2000. Ishihara is its chief executive. Within the partnership Creatures has two jobs of its own: the trading card game and the 3D models.

At E3 in 1999 Nintendo Power introduced Ishihara as “the President of Creatures, Inc. and one of the driving forces behind the Pokémon phenomenon”. He told the magazine that his favourite Pokémon was Exeggutor, because he had used it while debugging and never reset its data: “It’s at level 93 now.” In 2000 N64 Magazine reported a Warner Bros. competition whose winners would fly to Japan and play the president of Creatures at the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

The card game

The Pokémon Trading Card Game was launched in Japan in October 1996. It reached the United States in January 1999, published by Wizards of the Coast. Nintendo Power tried the starter decks and found a game that “shares many elements with games such as Magic” but is “much easier to learn”, while still rewarding players who built custom decks of 60 cards. Creatures still develops it: card game development is the first item in the company’s own description of its business.

Games and models

Creatures also makes video games, though Game Freak develops the main series. Its own titles include Detective Pikachu Returns (Switch, 2023), credited on Nintendo’s store as “Developed by Creatures Inc.”, in which a gruff, coffee-loving Pikachu who calls himself a great detective solves cases with a young man called Tim Goodman. Its larger contribution is less visible: Creatures makes the 3D models and motion of the Pokémon that appear in the games.

Leadership

The composer Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka joined Creatures full-time in 1999 and became its president soon after; Nintendo Life gives the year as 2001. In April 2023 Ishihara stepped down as chief executive and Tanaka as president. Yuji Kitano took both roles, with Tomotaka Komura as executive vice-president. Tanaka stayed on as a “Creative Fellow”, and Ishihara stayed on as head of The Pokémon Company.

Sources

See also

Checked. Verified against primary sources and signed off by a person.